PRO BONO SOCIETY NEWSLETTER KEY DATES : Talk with CEO of Howard League 7pm-8:30pm, B62 LASS, 10.11.2016 ISSUE FOUR 07/11/2016-27/11/2016 Pro Bono Week has officially arrived! To celebrate, we are running a variety of events throughout this week. Pro Bono also has tons of volunteering and careers events planned throughout the next six weeks, so do not worry about missing out! On Thursday, we are extremely privileged to be hosting Frances Crooke OBE, the CEO of the national Howard League for Penal Reform charity. Frances will be discussing how the charity set about achieving their core aims. She will also address the current issues facing the prison system, where it's going wrong and what can be done in the future. Governor of HMP Nottingham Tom Wheatley will be joining us on 23rd November to provide a unique insight into running a prison and his work as a governor. Attending both the Frances Cooke and Tom Wheatley talks will provide a fascinating insight into prisons that is simply unrivalled. The Negotiation Competition is now taking sign-ups (we will be sending out an email with more information during this week). We will be providing information on how the competition will be run at our Introduction to Negotiation Talk is on the 21st November in B63, LASS. A Partner from top law firm BLP will be heading the talk, giving his top tips on how to be a successful negotiator. Aspire are hosting a workshop with IntoUniversity and the Widening Participation Team. The trip will take place on the 15th and the 29th of November between 10am-12pm. The topics will be based on "Britain since the 1930s" and will include mini presentations on education laws and voting laws, among others. We are also running a human rights trip on November 30th. Applications for this trip close at 12pm on November 16th, so make sure to submit those applications if you want to get involved (more information on how to apply on the next page). A big congratulations to our new Junior Lawyers Against Poverty Co-Heads Charlotte Leather (Pro Bono) and Katharina Baumgartner (Oxfam). We would also like to introduce our new First Year Representative, Ellie Sheppard. If first year students have any questions or suggestions on how to improve our society, please do not hesitate to contact her via the Pro Bono email. Working With Children Training (Applications Open) 4pm-6pm, B62 LASS, 16.11.2016 Introduction to Negotiation 7pm-9pm, B63 LASS, 21.11.2016 Howard League Talk with Governor Tom Wheatley 4pm-5pm, 23.11.2016, E126 Portland Building Aspire s Britain since the 1930s (Application Deadline) 12pm, 11.11.2016 The Pro Bono Society is one of the largest volunteering societies on campus. We specialise in legal volunteering, but have tons of projects to interest the non-law among you, including frequent trips into prisons, courts and schools as well as talks from refugees, prisoners, and educators! Pro Bono Love <3 Ellie Sergeant - President Voted Best Academic Society! Over 8 Core Projects. FREE TO JOIN
We recently had our first Aspire trip of the academic year. Our eight volunteers visited Bluebell Primary School to teach students about human rights and why these rights are important. Teaching young people is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable opportunities that we offer as a society, so we would highly recommend getting involved with the project. If you are interested in applying for any of our Aspire trips, please send in an application with 100 words as to why you would like to participate and why you think you would be a great additional member to the team. Please also include your name, year of study, subject, and phone number. The first Mock-Trial of the year was a smashing success! Two schools attended to watch our volunteers perform and all the students got fully involved in the workshops, even having the opportunity to play jury for the court case. Volunteers were either cross-examined as witnesses or become barristers for the day, providing opening and closing statements as well as examining the witnesses. We have many other schools interested in our Mock-Trial, so if you are interested in taking part as either a witness or a barrister, keep an eye out for updates from us soon. We had a break from our regular Pro Bono activities at our recent Ice Skating Social. Although we (particularly the committee) are unlikely to win awards for our skating prowess, we had tons of fun meeting our members and falling over at the National Ice Centre. We believe that it is incredibly important to set time aside for having fun with friends and looking after yourself. We hope to have more socials and welfare events in the foreseeable future, so watch this space! Our yearly Vacation Scheme Workshop was on Monday 7th November. Students who have secured training contracts will gave their top tips on how to succeed in vacation scheme applications, addressing key areas such as commercial and competency questions, video and phone interviews as well as how to tackle those dreaded assessment days. If any attendees have follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Pro Bono email - we are more than happy to help!
What is Junior Lawyers Against Poverty? Junior Lawyers Against Poverty is an offshoot of Oxfam s Lawyers Against Poverty committee, the project s activities will focus on issues in developing countries that are current targets of Oxfam, with potential for future expansion of the target geography. The project s three key objectives are: Alleviation of lack of access to justice affecting poor citizens in developing countries and education of students in UK about realities in target developing countries. Improve recruitment and retention of women in law in developing countries. Remedy lack of access to resources for Law students. Junior Lawyers Against Poverty at Nottingham: Pro Bono Gathering and sending textbooks to countries with few qualified lawyers. Participating in the national JLAP blog and essay competitions. Twinning with students and professors from impoverished countries. Junior Lawyers Against Poverty at Nottingham: Oxfam Fundraising for the JLAP Nottingham Branch. Raising awareness about poverty, access to justice and other key issues. Hosting talks by oxfam representatives, lawyers and volunteers.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is a leading magic firm and one of the top five law firms in the world. Freshfields not only supports Pro Bono Society on a financial level, but are extremely supportive of the work we do. Freshfields stands out as a firm that is strongly and authentically committed to pro bono work and corporate social responsibility, and its lawyers are involved in numerous pro bono projects. Save the Children runs world-class programmes to save children s lives and challenge world leaders to keep their promises to give children a brighter future. Its central mission to educate, protect and care for children resonates around the world and is why this charity is supported by many of Freshfields offices. Freshfields began its pro bono relationship with Save the Children in 2009. Since then they have recorded over 16,000 hours of pro bono legal advice for five different member organisations around the world which includes day-to-day institutional support, as well as in areas more closely linked to The Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme is an example of thought leadership and how Freshfields can harness their experience and their relationships with universities, clients and firms to potentially change the colour of elite businesses and institutions in the UK and beyond. Freshfields set up the Scheme to address the disproportionate under-representation in large commercial law firms of black men from low-income households. It is a UK-wide scheme aimed at first year university law students from this community nominated by their universities as exceptionally talented. The Scheme has had a significant impact on the lives of the near 200 scholarship candidates and around 30 scholars that have been involved. Freshfields are firm advocates of asylum support and the right to dignity (ASAP). Since 2009 their lawyers have provided free legal advice and representation at the Asylum Support Tribunal in London to some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. Asylum support refers to the very limited housing and welfare support available to some asylum seekers and former asylum seekers, who are generally not allowed to work and are excluded from mainstream benefits so asylum support is usually the only thing to keep them from street homelessness. Freshfields lawyers are devoted to ensuring these vulnerable clients have representation and commit to regular attendance (each spends a whole day at the AST every 6 8 weeks), update meetings and engagement with ASAP s active email group. Applications are now OPEN for workshops, vacation schemes and training contracts. Workshops for first year, penultimate year and third year students - http://ssl.freshfields.com/ukgraduates/ workshops.html Vacation Schemes - http://ssl.freshfields.com/ukgraduates/vacation-schemes.html Training Contracts - http://ssl.freshfields.com/ukgraduates/how-to-apply-for-a-training-contract.html
A career in law is demanding, so choose somewhere that makes it all worthwhile. Choose a firm where your curiosity, ideas and hard work will be rewarded. Where you can experience everything that a career in commercial law has to offer, through a distinctively flexible training contract and beyond. A firm whose international outlook and world-class reputation open up a multitude of opportunities. See the whole story at freshfields.com/ukgraduates Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP